(this page was last updated in November 2021)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1977.
Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
PIPA 2010 nominee.
Born in the suburbs of the better days, today I research narratives where text and image mix. Drawing is my favorite medium, followed by painting and collage. For a long time I have perceived graffiti and urban interventions as a new counterculture of the 21st century, and I have embraced them in a need to devour the world and show my face-live what I had been told: think global, act local. The drift in the city is the movement of inspiration: I think on the bus, read on the train, observe people who will soon be living scraps in multiple and absurd bodies, like strange characters that structure equally absurd fictions, but with heads; with one foot in politics and the other in art history.
Website:www.carloscontente.com.br
Video produced by Matrioska Filmes exclusively for PIPA 2010:
Born in the suburbs of the better days, today I research narratives where text and image mix. Drawing is my favorite medium, followed by painting and collage. For a long time I have perceived graffiti and urban interventions as a new counterculture of the 21st century, and I have embraced them in a need to devour the world and show my face-live what I had been told: think global, act local. The drift in the city is the movement of inspiration: I think on the bus, read on the train, observe people who will soon be living scraps in multiple and absurd bodies, like strange characters that structure equally absurd fictions, but with heads; with one foot in politics and the other in art history. My education includes a master’s degree in the line of contemporary artistic processes by the postgraduate program in arts at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (2019) with guidance from Malu Fatorelli and a degree in painting at the School of Fine Arts at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2005). I have exhibited in places like Paço Imperial (RJ) and participated in fairs like Art Rio, SP Arte, Frieze London, ARCO Madrid, Zona Maco Mexico or Drawing Now, in Paris, but I really learned to teach was at the Centro de Estudos e Ações Solidárias da Maré (CEASM). “The almost maniac work of Contente multiplication in inside and outside venues; the nonsense and perverse humor of the elaborated stories; the strong desire for communication, as stated by the artist himself: all these are elements that grant to Carlos Contente’s work a quality that ironically challenges the most canonical parameters for a work of art. Already circulating through legitimating art spaces, his drawings seem to reveal the critical regard of the author on institutionalized values and moral and artistic standards, as if they, indeed, were in fact quite crazy.” – Cristina Salgado.
Education
2017-2019
– Attending MD’s in Contemporary Artistic Processes by the Post-graduation program in visual arts of the Instituto de Artes da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, UERJ
1999-2005
– Painting at the College of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Solo Exhibitions
2019
-“Só love”. Gallery Cândido Portinari. State University of Rio de Janeiro. Curated by Thiago Fernandes, Brazil
-“Ao longo da linha do trem”. SESC Unit Engenho de Dentro-RJ. Curated by Jacqueline Melo, Brazil
2018
– “Estética da Comicidade”, curated by Jacqueline Melo, Galeria da UFF, Niterói, Brazil
2017
– “Fe.Lis & Contente”, show in partnership with Fe.Lis. Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013
– “Contente, sigo com fé e na humildade, linhas & hematomas contam as minhas histórias (Contented, I keep going, humble and faithful; lines and bruises tell my stories)”, Gallery Emma Thomas, São Paulo, Brazil
2012
– “O Mundo (The World)”, Gallery Bendana I Pinel, Paris, France
– “Traços & Tarsilões”, gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2011
– “Infinite jungle of individual repetition”, Gallery Christinger de Mayo, Zurich, Switzerland
2009
– “Compradores de Mundo (World Buyers)”, gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2007
– “Contente:auto-retratos também (Contente: Self-Portraits Too)”, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2006
– “Contente tende a infinito (Contente Tends to Infinity)”, Gallery Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Contente tende a infinito (Contente Tends to Infinity)”, gallery A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Group Exhibitions
2019
-“Quem sobe esta escada?” / Exhibition for the inauguration of the Casa da Escada Colorida. Escadaria Selarón, Lapa-RJ. Curated by Rachel Balassiano & Camila Pinho, Brazil
-“Esquele7o”. Group exhibition of the seventy years of UERJ at Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
-“Salão Vermelho de Artes Degeneradas”. Group exhibition in honor of the first day of may (workers’ day) under disgovernment of the dismantling workshop of the country. Curated by Bruna Costa & Thiago Fernandes, Brazil
2018
– “Arte em Disputa”, Corpos e Territórios, Exhibition of the 5o Encontro de Pesquisadores dos Programas de Pós-graduação em Artes Visuais do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Museu da República, Rio de Janeiro,Brazil
– “AFRONTA!”, curated by Jacqueline Melo and Ana Elisa Lidízia, Galeria espaço piloto, UNB, Brasília, Brazil
– “Faça você mesmx”, curated by Alexandre Sá and co-participating of the curators Marcelo Campos, André Sheik, Anna Corina and Vitor Ramalho, A Mesa, Morro da Conceição, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “SENZY VIVA!”, curadoria da exposição póstuma da artista e arte-educadora carioca Senzy Garcês (Amanda Garcia), com participação especial de Dalton Paula, Renata Sampaio, Itala Isis, Vitor Vanes, Ricardo Sacih and other artists, Centro Cultural Pequena África, Saúde, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Blur”, curated by Ted Decker, PhICA, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
2017
– “Experiência 14: Gestos, intervalos e reversos”, curadoria de Regina de Paula e Inês Araújo, A Mesa, Morro da Conceição, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Uterutopias”, curated by Leonardo Bertolossi, A Mesa, Morro da Conceição, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2016
– “Escola de Belas Artes, 200 anos”, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2014
– “Compulsão Narrativa (Narrative Compulsion)”, Sesc Vila Mariana, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Coop Riot”, 8Salon, Hamburg, Germany
2013
– “Convite à viagem (Invitation to Travel)”, Rumos Itaú Cultural, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2012
– “A volta ao dia em oitenta mundos (Around the Day in Eighty Worlds)”, Rumos Itaú Cultural, Cultural Centre Otto Marques, Goiânia, Brazil
– “Convite à viagem (Invitation to Travel)”, Rumos, Institute Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil
2011
– “Brazilian Papers”, Bendana-Pinel Gallery, Paris, France
2010
– “Converging Trajectories”, Modified Arts, Phoenix, USA
– “Like tears in rain”, Fábrica de Novos Talentos, Palácio das Artes, Porto, Portugal
– “Fugue Urbaine”, Quartiér Ephemére, Montreal, Canada
2009
– SIART Biennial, La Paz, Bolivia
2008
– “El Papel del Artista (The Artist’s Role)”, Doméstico IV, Madrid, Spain
– “I/legítimo_ I/llegitimate”, Paço das Artes, University of São Paulo, Brazil
– “Nova Arte Nova (New-New Art)”, Cultural Centre Bank of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brazil
– “Zoation Painting, la pintura de Broma (The Mocking Painting)”, National Museum of Art, La Paz, Bolivia
– “Contemporary Art and Heritage”, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2007
– Bangkok International Art Festival, Thailand
– “THE IMAGE OF THE SOUND OF SAMBA”, Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “New Acquisitions of the Gilberto Chateaubriand Collection”, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2006
– “O que é normal? (What’s Normal?)”, Contemporary Cultural Centre, Brasília, Brazil
– Arte Pará, Belém do Pará, Brasil
– “Arquivo Gera (General Archive)”, Cultural Centre Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Portuñol (PortuSpanish)”, Centre for Brazilian Studies, Buenos Aires, Argentina
– “Além dos limites (Beyond the Limits)”, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005
– SIART Biennial, La Paz, Bolivia
– “Conexão Contemporânea (Contemporary Connections)”, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– “Contente tende a infinito” in 20 anos de Paço Imperial (“Contente Tends to Infinity” in 20 years of the Imperial Palace), Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2004
– “AttacK+” street art festival, Rio de Janeiro , Brazil
Awards & Sponsorships
2010
– Residency at the Etching studio of the Iberê Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2009
– Residency for the Americas, Quartier Ephémère, Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada
Prizes and Scolarships
2010
– PIPA Prize nominee, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Iberê Camargo Scolarship, Atelier de Gravura da Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2009
– Residency Quartier Ephémère, Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada
2005
– Entel Priza from Siart Bienal Internacional de Arte de La Paz, Bolivia
Collections
– Gilberto Chateaubriand, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Museum of Art of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Museum Artur Bispo do Rosário, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Fabio Szwarcwald, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Isabela Prata, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– José Olympio Pereira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Miguel Chaia, São Paulo, Brazil
– Luis Augusto Teixeira de Melo, Brazil
– Fernando Abdalla, São Paulo, Brazil
– Felipe Mattar, São Paulo, Brazil
– Maria Baró, São Paulo, Brazil
– Paulo Galvão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Ana Stewart, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
– Collection Madeira, Lisbon, Portugal
– Leif Djurhuus, Denmark
– Wendy Stark, USA
– Julio Verme, Peru
– Dany Wohlgroth, Zürich, Switzerland
– Célia Birbragher, Colombia
Art-Fairs
– SP ARTE, São Paulo, Brazil [2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015]
– ART RIO, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015]
– Frieze, New York, USA [2015]
– Miami Art Basel, USA [2013, 2014, 2015]
– Drawing Now, Salão do desenho contemporâneo, Carroussel Du Louvre, Paris, France [2013]
– Pinta, Feira internacional de arte contemporânea latino americana, London, UK [2012]
– Armory Show,New York, USA [2012]
– Ch.ARCO, Santiago, Chile [2012]
– Zona Maco, México City, Mexico, [2010, 2011]
– Frieze, London, UK [2010 and 2011]
– ARCO Madrid, Spain [Solo project, 2008 and 2009]
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